The economic shutdown that happened at the beginning of 2020 saw plans shifting for many working adults, from in-office to from-home work and from in-person meetings to virtual, technology-enabled ones. Some of the biggest changes happened in some of the creative minds of recent graduates, who internalized the shifting work landscape and the opportunities it offered in the form of new business ventures.
CNBC recently reported on three young entrepreneurs who founded technology-oriented businesses last year in the midst of the pandemic, seeing opportunities in the way that technology was being utilized differently for a workforce largely trapped at home.
After completing an internship at Google, Agustin Cortes created a free online platform that offers education content for anyone. He wanted to create a place of learning so that people who didn’t go to college – like him – would have a free and easy way to access educational content. He hopes that eventually it will become big enough to be a pipeline for recruiters as a realistic alternative to a paid degree.
Etienne Lunetta, shortly before graduating from the University of Southern California, dropped out to start a web security consulting and aptitude testing firm last year, and an AI text generator this year that writes SEO content. Lunetta saw the spikes of cybersecurity attacks happening during the pandemic and created his business as a place to obtain certifications and credentials for those looking to get into the field. He hopes that his AI program will one day rival that of Google and Microsoft and will be used nationwide for a variety of writing applications.
Mani Kandan, a recent graduate, started a company that uses AI software to eliminate inefficiencies in the day-to-day work of small law firms. While the legal industry was more traditionally risk-adverse, according to Kandan, the pandemic saw the adoption of AI technologies by attorneys and law firms in record numbers, something that his business captured and benefited from. He hopes that his AI software will help bring the technology-lagging legal industry more in-line with other tech-savvy ones, such as healthcare, easing the stress on clients and the justice system overall.
The National Bureau of Economic Research reported a record number of new business applications in the latter half of 2020, and continuing on through May of this year. These applications included likely new employers, a trend that is the polar opposite of what was seen during the Great Recession when likely new employer businesses and startups dropped off sharply. Young minds have seen opportunity and are stepping into the entrepreneurial space in droves.
Many of these businesses are technology-based.
“Young people have the widest set of demographics, are the least risk averse, and haven’t lived life yet,” said Lunetta. “We don’t have experiences to scare us from trying new things. So, I think it’s really on the shoulders of the young generation to try new things and convince the older generations to also try new things.”
‘ENTR’ Invests in the Entrepreneurs Driving the Future
While the pandemic has seen a rash of small business entrepreneurs cropping up, the larger, more established entrepreneur-led companies follow the same core principles of disruption and sustainable growth. The ERShares Entrepreneurs ETF (ENTR) offers investors a way to capture the shifting trends in the U.S. economy, as founders work to disrupt and drive their industries forward in a pandemic and post-pandemic economy.
ENTR, which tracks U.S. large cap companies, is based on the company’s proprietary Entrepreneur Factor, which combines thematic research and artificial intelligence technology to identify high growth potential entrepreneurial companies.
The ETF offers an almost 95% exposure to sectors that are currently showing high growth opportunities. This includes information technology (36%), healthcare (23%), communication services (17%), and consumer discretionary (12%).
ENTR has an expense ratio of 0.49%.
For more news, information, and strategy, visit the Entrepreneur ETF Channel.